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Conservation: Providential outcome

Nature volume 451, pages 122–123 (2008)Cite this article

A winning combination of isolation, local involvement and a broad ecological remit are making the management of the seas around Colombia's San Andrés islands a model for other conservationists, reports Mark Schrope.

The locals claim that the waters around the picture-postcard Caribbean island of Old Providence come in seven shades of blue; the surrounding corals come in a far greater range of hues and colours. Just a couple of kilometres offshore and 35 metres down, for instance, you can dive to Turtle Rock, a 12-metre megalith covered in red, yellow and neon green sponges with a 1.5-metre growth of bushy black coral at its peak. The seas of the San Andrés archipelago, a part of Colombia about 800 kilometres north west of the country's coast (and in fact much closer to Nicaragua) boast many fine reefs, impressive for both their quantity ? Old Providence has the second largest barrier reef in the Americas ? and their quality. The archipelago's reefs, although not pristine, are some of the healthiest in the Caribbean. And the intriguing mixture of autonomy and local representation that forms the basis of their management may be able to keep them that way.

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  1. Mark Schrope
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Mark Schrope is a Florida-based freelance writer.

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CORALINA

International Coral Reef Initiative

Thresholds and resilience of Caribbean coral reefs

Review of ?Coral: a pessimist in paradise? by Steve Jones

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Schrope, M. Conservation: Providential outcome. Nature 451, 122–123 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/451122a

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